Simplifying GMAT SC Problems

I digged this out of the gold mine which the BEAT the GMAT website. The author of this is an experienced Manhattan instructor named Stacey Koprince. This so well explains out the basics of attacking any SC problem in general. Find out the main verb n subject and separate the modifiers and begin your correlation between all the components of the sentence. And yes, you have to do it all within 90 seconds.
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According to its proponents, a proposed new style of aircraft could, by skimming along the top of the atmosphere, fly between most points on Earth in under two hours.

A. According to its proponents, a proposed new style of aircraft could, by skimming along the top of the atmosphere, fly between most points on Earth in under two hours.

B. By skimming along the top of the atmosphere, proponents of a proposed new style of aircraft say it could fly between most points on Earth in under two hours.

C. A proposed new style of aircraft could fly between most points on Earth in under two hours, according to its proponents, with it skimming along the top of the atmosphere.

D. A proposed new style of aircraft, say its proponents, could fly between most points on Earth in under two hours because of its skimming along the top of the atmosphere.

E. According to its proponents, skimming along the top of the atmosphere makes it possible that a proposed new style of aircraft could fly between most points on Earth in under two hours.
It’s definitely extra-tricky when the entire sentence (or most of it) is underlined. Often, these kinds of sentences will be testing modifiers and/or parallelism, and so we want to try to compare “chunks” of the sentence, rather than comparing individual words.

It can also help to visualize the problem in terms of its core vs. its modifiers.

For example, in the above original sentence, we’ve got:
(modifier), (core subject + core verb), (modifier), (core verb) (modifier)

Yuck. Okay, I’ve got an opening modifier followed by the main subject. I know how to check that! The modifier should be modifying the subject (the main noun that follows the comma). And, skimming the other choices, E has the same opening setup, so I can check E in the same way.

And, hey! B also has one of those opening modifiers followed by a subject (even though the actual words are different). So, again, I can check the same rule here.

Notice that I’m starting to examine these based upon the structure of the sentence. I’m not just trying to compare the words / look for the same words. Based on words, B looks nothing like A and E. But based on structure, the beginning of B looks just like the beginning of A and E. All three have an opening modifier followed by the subject.

So, I notice that both B and E are problematic in this regard. In B, presumably the proponents are not really skimming along the top of the atmosphere. And, in E, the proponents are presumably proponents of the new aircraft, not proponents of skimming along the top of the atmosphere. So I can eliminate both of those.

C and D both start with the core of the sentence – no opening modifier here. The sentence still must have modifiers, though, so where are they now?

C: (core subject + core verb) (modifier), (modifier), (modifier)
D: (core subject), (modifier), (core verb) (multiple prepositional phrase modifiers in a row)

Okay, C has multiple modifiers in a row. I know from experience that this is dangerous – each one should refer to one touching it, often the one before it in this kind of setup. Is that the case? No. “According to its proponents” is modifying… hours? Earth? It should be aircraft, which is all the way at the beginning of the sentence.

And we can do the same thing with D. The first modifier (between subject and verb) is okay, but the multiple modifiers in a row at the end get problematic.

And, hey, I just learned something else to look for: multiple modifiers in a row are often “dangerous.” Obviously, you can construct a sentence correctly with multiple modifiers in a row – we do it all the time – but it’s also very easy to mess up the order / relationship of things when you have multiple modifiers in a row. So now I’ve got a new structure to think about / look for when I see these really-long-underline sentences.
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